Graven Images and the Bible

The Catholic church is often criticised by non-Catholic Christian denominations for the use of statues. In fact, the Protestant rejection of statues is only one of such over-reactions in history, including the Iconoclastic Controversy of the Sixth Century, and Islam, which is basically a Judaeo-Christian heresy.

The Catholic Church during the Council of Trent (1545-1563) issued a clear statement concerning images and statues. According to the 25th Session of this General Council:

The images of Christ and of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the saints are to be had and retained particularly in churches, and due honor and veneration are to be given them; not that any divinity or virtue is believed to be in them on account of which they are to be worshipped, or that anything is to be asked of them, or that trust is to be reposed in images, as was of old by the Gentiles, who placed their hopes in idols; but because the honor which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which these images represent; so that we through the images which we kiss...or bend the knee, adore Christ and venerate the saints, whom they represent. [The Canons & Decrees of the Council of Trent (TAN Books, 1978) p. 215-6]

There are problems for Bible-Only Christians in maintaining a total ban on statues and holy pictures: examples of this practice are found in several places in the Bible itself.

First, in Exodus 25:18-21, God commands Moses to make two statues of angels (cherubim) for the top of the Ark of the Covenant.

Later in Numbers 21:8-9, God commands Moses to make a bronze serpent, so that the people who were bitten by snakes could look upon it and be healed. Now it is true that centuries later King Hezekiah destroyed it; however, this action was done because the people worshipped it as a god (2 Kings 18:4).

In the Gospel, Jesus compared Himself to the bronze serpent (John 3:14).

Continuing in the Old Testament, the inner sanctuary of the Temple contained two large statues of angels according to 1 Kings 6:23-28.

In the following verses, Solomon also had the walls of the Temple decorated with carved images of angels, palm trees and flowers (1 Kings 6:29ff).

During the Babylonian Captivity, Ezekiel had a vision from God about the design of the new Temple. According to Ezekiel 41:17-25, this new Temple contained graven images of angels and palm trees.

These passages in the Bible indicate that God does not forbid the making of statues. If God truly condemned the making of graven images in the "Second Commandment" (according to the traditional Protestant numbering of the Commandments), then He must have changed His mind later in the Old Testament.

See external link at http://users.binary.net/polycarp/graven.html for an excellent pamphlet on this topic, with Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat (1993).